The present invention relates to a mounting bracket for a mirror motor designed such that the mirror motor can be snapped in and out of the mounting bracket a plurality of times. Thus, the mirror motor can be serviced or replaced without damaging the mirror motor or mounting bracket.
Motorized adjustable rearview mirrors have become very popular in the automotive industry. In general, mounting brackets mount a mirror on one face and an electric powered mirror motor which moves the mounting bracket and mirror on a second face. The only mount structure holding the mirror is the mounting bracket connection on the mirror motor. The mirror motor must be able to easily move the mirror for adjustment, and thus a fixed connection between the mirror and the housing is typically not provided. As can be appreciated, a mirror extending laterally outwardly of the side of the vehicle is cantilever supported from the vehicle body, and subject to a good deal of vibration.
To withstand vibration, the prior art has typically utilized a stiff snapping finger to lock the motor to the mounting bracket. In such assemblies, if the mirror motor broke, the bracket could not be easily removed from the motor without breaking the snapping fingers. Thus the mirror mounting bracket and motor would all have to be replaced.
In one prior art example, a mounting bracket includes a ring integrally connecting wide snapping fingers. The fingers include a flange which engages with the mating lip of the casing of the mirror motor. Because the fingers are wide and integral with the ring of the mounting bracket, the fingers are too stiff to allow easy disengagement of the motor from the mounting bracket.
Further, in the prior art, the proper location of the motor on the mirror bracket has sometimes been somewhat difficult to achieve. It is necessary that the mirror motor be accurately positioned relative to the bracket, such that the control for mirror motor will send signals that are properly spatially accurate relative to the actual position of the mirror.
In the basic field of locking or snapping tabs, it has been proposed to utilize a top face and a lower face on a tab which is to releasably snap into a second member to hold the second member. In this basic prior art, it has been generally realized that utilizing a steeper angle for the top face than is used for the lower face will allow the member to be releasably snapped by the locking tabs. However, the prior art has not proposed any such structure for locking tabs utilized to hold a mirror mount. A worker of ordinary skill in the art would have believed that such a combination would be unable to withstand the strong vibrational forces that must be overcome by any mirror motor mount. In fact, the prior art locking tabs have utilized a lower face which is extended parallel to the face of the bracket to provide a secure mount to the motor.